1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to a mobile client device, operation method, and recording medium applied in the case where, for example, a user performs an input operation on a touch panel to execute a specific function.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, there is increasing adoption of touch panels as an input device by which a user performs input operations on a mobile device such as a mobile phone client device, an advanced mobile information terminal equipped with telephony functions, commonly referred to as a smartphone, or a tablet device. A touch panel is a device in which a display that displays images, etc. and a touch sensor or other position input device are integrally constructed.
In a client device provided with a touch panel, application software (hereinafter abbreviated to “applications” in some cases) operates due to the user performing given operational input on various icons displayed on a screen, for example. Applications are associated with icons, and operate according to the operational input. Known operational input methods include tap operations that tap the screen, drag operations that move a contacting pointing object such as a finger or stylus from a given position to another position, flick operations that move a pointing object across the screen in a sweeping motion, and tap operations that tap the screen with a pointing object.
These various operations are determined on the basis of information on the coordinate position on the screen where the pointing object is in contact or proximity during a series of operations from when the finger contacts the screen until it is released. For example, information such as the variation in coordinate position per unit time, the translational velocity of the coordinate position, and the on-screen surface area where touch is detected are used as information for identifying operational input.
Additionally, in order to reduce power consumption, a mobile client device transitions to a suspended state, i.e., a low-power mode, if no operational input from the user is performed for a fixed amount of time. In the suspended state, the power consumption of the mobile client device is reduced by lowering the intensity of the backlight in the display or suspending various functions. However, information such as the type of operational input performed prior to transitioning to the suspended state is saved to memory. For this reason, the operational input type, etc. can be retrieved from memory and processing can be resumed when awakening from the suspended state (called “waking up”). In the following description, the process of awakening from a suspended state is called “resuming”.
Also, methods that detect an operation performed on a touch panel and initiate operation of an electronic device are becoming known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,721 describes a method of transitioning an electronic device to an unlocked user interface state in the case where contact with a touch-sensitive display corresponds to a given gesture.